SUPERIOR — As police swarmed to her house, rushing toward the call one officer had long feared, Brittany Velasquez reached into the backseat and unbuckled her dead children.

Velasquez, 20, carried the two children into a relative’s stone home, turning away from the car where she had left them. Flashing lights raced toward Richard Street. She lay the children down and tried to bring them back.

When Superior police arrived a few minutes later Monday night, the 2-year-old boy and his 10-month-old sister were already gone.

Velasquez was booked into the Pinal County Jail on two counts of first-degree murder Tuesday, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.

The deaths and subsequent arrest rattled the historic mining town 65 miles east of Phoenix and ended a months-long string of police visits and child welfare checks involving Velasquez and her children, according to police records and officials.

“This is a small community,” Superior interim Police Chief Christian Ensley said in a Tuesday press conference. “We know Brittany.”

CLOSE

Tempe resident Jordan Romero speaks outside the home in Superior where his 2-year-old nephew and 10-month-old niece were found dead on March 26, 2018. azcentral.com

As of Tuesday afternoon, officials were awaiting autopsies and toxicology reports to determine the cause of the children’s deaths. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, whose office will lead the investigation, said the children showed no obvious gunshot or stab wounds.

Neither Lamb nor Ensley would comment on a potential motive, but Ensley said at least one of his officers had expressed concerns about the children’s safety.

Officers had been called to Velasquez’s home seven or eight times over the past two years, Ensley said. Twice, the police visits led to reports of potential child neglect filed with the Arizona Department of Child Safety. Both involved the children being left with an older relative for extended periods.

The first, filed on Oct. 6, 2016, alleged that the relative was too old to take care of a child.

The second stemmed from a 911 call on Jan. 1, to report a theft. While at the house, officers determined no theft had occurred, but grew concerned about an apparent lack of parenting supplies in the home.

DCS confirmed both incidents in a statement issued to The Arizona Republic on Tuesday, but said neither had led to action.

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“In both reports, there was no evidence that the mother was abusing or neglecting her children,” DCS spokesman Darren DaRonco said. “While there were concerns raised regarding Ms. Velasquez’s previous mental health, no evidence was presented by anyone that indicated mental health issues were impeding Ms. Velasquez’s ability to parent.”

Both cases were closed, and the children remained with Velasquez.

It was unclear whether Velasquez lived full time in the town of 2,800 people. When DCS investigated the January report, officials inspected her Mesa apartment and found plenty of parenting supplies. But Ensley said she may have been in the process of moving to Superior.

"I'd seen them before. I know who they are," Ensley said. "It's a devastating blow. You could go anywhere around here and find people who know that family. It’s not hard to do."

She was raised in the pinkish house on Richard Street, a relative said, nestled below the white "S" that marks the side of a nearby mountain. Pregnant and married at 17 years old, she rarely spoke, but longtime residents often saw her walking along the brick-faced shops downtown.

Last June, her husband, Christopher Miranda, died of what his brother called a drug overdose.

"There's a lot to blame here," said Miranda’s brother, Jordan Romero, who now lives in Tempe. "No one should accept all of the blame on their own."

Romero drove to the house about 13 hours after the police first arrived, when Richard Street was lined with TV trucks and waiting reporters. He popped the trunk of his black Chevrolet. Inside sat a basket of flowers and a plastic bag of candles. He walked across the street and onto the driveway, stepping around a car seat overturned along the curb.

Without a word, he set his family’s gifts by the front door and shook his head.